Xòqī (language)
Xòqī (in color: }} }}) is not only a tribe or civilization, but also a language spoken by it. The language is partly speakable by humans because some phonemes cannot be articulated. Alphabet The Xòqī writing and communicating system consists of colored boxes and squares. In this article they look like a colored series of . Each square has a color and the color corresponds with the pronunciation and in case of color adjectives the color. This means that for example }} (tú) means red, }} (cē) means green, and }} (mò) means blue. Cyan could be translated with }} but could also be translated with }} }} (cēmò). Those colors can also serve as primitives corresponding with one syllable. Words consisting of several syllables will have the same number of boxes. Note, that not all words have the meaning of their respective colors. In most of the cases the colors have a pronunciation clue, not a color clue. An example is the name Xòqī. Two syllables: xò ( }}) and qī ( }}). If you combine this to "Xòqī", the result in colors will be: }} }}. As soon when the Xòqī and the humans made contact with eachother the humans decided to implement a Latin alphabet. Since the Xòqī use clicks, the humans took the letters x, q and c for representing the click sounds from Xhosa and Zulu. Phonology First the Xòqī have two pars of vocal cords. These vocal cords make different sounds which indicates the meaning of the word. In the pronunciation they are indicated with numbers 1 and 2, which you will only find in word lists and dictionaries. In the human transliterations they are not used. Secondly, the Xòqī have two noses. When nasalizing the vowels and the pronunciation of /m/, /n/ and /ŋ/, they can choose. Which nose the speaker chooses indicates the meaning of the word. This is again indicated by 1 or 2, only in dictionaries. Consonants Notes * In the header of the table, P means pronunciation and S means spelling. * There is a labio-dental fricative which is much like a bilabial click but can be lengthened like a fricative. * There is a lateral click wich spelling x. * The letter representing ʘ hasn't been decided yet. * The first symbol (or two when there is a hyphen) denotes the phoneme. * The second symbol is the letter for the voiceless consonant, voicing level 4. * The third symbol is the letter for the consonant with voicing 1 (creaky voice), 2 (normal voice), 3 (hoarse, breathy voice). This is more an issue for vowels. * There is no lateral approximant (/l/) and no aveolar thrill (/r/), but there may be a reason to add it. * /w/ is a labio-velar approximant. Vowels Preparing Xòqī vowel table. The spelling indicates the human transliteration of the Xòqī language. Notes * Front vowels are always unrounded. * Back vowels are always rounded. * A vowel has no nasalisation, has nasalisation 1 or nasalisation 2. * The /a/ sound is never nasalised. * The /ɑ/ sound is always anasalised, type 1 or 2. * A vowel has a voicing level: 1 is creaky voice, 2 is normal voice, 3 is breathy voice, 4 is no voice (voicelessness). * A vowel has a tone: ** The first tone is a dropping tone, indicated with a ` above the vowel: ò. ** The second tone is a high constant tone, indicated with a - above the vowel: ī. ** The third tone is a rising tone, indicated with a ' above the vowel: á. ** The fourth tone is a low constant tone. It has no diacritics. Vocabulary Notes Category:Xòqī Category:Languages